Gautier, Th�ophile 1811-72
French poet and novelist

Born in Tarbes, Gascony, he turned from painting to literature, and became at first an extreme Romantic. In 1830 he published his first long poem, Albertus, and in 1832 the Com�die de la mort ('The Comedy of Death'). His best remembered collection, �maux et cam�es (1856, 'Enamels and Cameos'), marked a turning away from Romanticism towards the Parnassian school of poetry. His celebrated novel, Mademoiselle de Maupin, with its defiant preface, appeared in 1835. He wrote many other novels, short stories, theatrical criticisms, articles on the Salon, and M�nagerie intime (1869), a kind of informal autobiography. His daughter Judith Gautier (1845-1917) wrote novels, plays, poems and translations.

Bibliography: R Grant, Th�ophile Gautier (1975)